Talks
I give talks to groups and these are just a few of my talks:
- Starting family history
- Starting house history
- Researching non-conformist ancestors in Yorkshire
- Scandal! Cases before the bawdy courts 1516-1848: The cases reveal some of the more scandalous aspects of life in our community in past centuries as well as details of people’s lives, relationships and the things they argued about
- Life and death in Todmorden 1851-1901: this talk uses census records to explore who was living in Todmorden in the second half of the 19th century, where they came from and what they were doing there. It uses examples of families and individuals as well as statistics to gain an insight into the people of Todmorden over a 50 year period.
- Religious worship in Todmorden 1600 – 1900: this talk explores the different religious denominations which established chapels in the valley, looking at how non-conformity developed here, a dispute at the parish church and a larger than life curate
- Understanding the community through censuses: how to use censuses to build a picture of life in the second half of the 19th century combining statistics and individual households to look at how far people travelled, how families were constituted and much more
- The Fieldens and their legacy in Todmorden: there’s hardly any aspect of life in 19th century Todmorden that the Fieldens didn’t influence in some way: work, religion, education and even sport. This talk explores the colourful characters that built up the Fielden enterprise from small scale weaving, through radical politics and an unhappy marriage to untold wealth and success.
- Did he leave me anything? This talk explores the history of will making from mediaeval to more recent times, some of the customs and the process of making and proving a will. It looks at how people ensured their loved ones received their inheritance and those out of favour didn’t, using examples of loving and not so loving families.
Walks
As a guide with Calderdale Heritage Walks I plan and lead walks in the Todmorden area covering many aspects of the town’s past such as:
- First World War in Todmorden
- Death, disease and disaster
- Transport and industry and the development of Todmorden
- Fielden Town
- Dobroyd Castle tour
- Churches and chapels of Todmorden
- Cornholme Cornucopia
- Walsden walk
- Todmorden Folk
- Tod-murder-n